Jardins sous la pluie
by signelchan
Summary: A spring wedding among the blooming flowers in a park is Kaede's dream, and yet when the morning comes and it's pouring rain outside, Shuichi wonders if that dream will be made reality that day, if ever at all.


The sound of rain lightly tapping against the window was what woke Shuichi up that morning, not his alarm like he'd expected, and the difference in noise was enough to make his heart sink down into his stomach. He'd known that this was possible, that the morning would be dreary and wet, but every time he'd tried bringing it up he was told to stop being so negative about things and to be optimistic. Now he was right, and he was going to have to be part of a massive scramble to get what was supposed to be an outdoor wedding inside somewhere, unless everyone decided they wanted to be drenched by the cool rain.

As he did every morning, he lazily rolled over onto his side, looking at the empty other half of the bed as if he'd forgotten that he was sleeping alone that night. That decision also hadn't been his own, but rather one made by the overzealous bridesmaids who insisted that the last night before the wedding was spent separate. He hadn't wanted to go through with that, but they'd been so forceful in their insistence and Kaede had been so willing to go along with their every word for her sake; now that it was raining, he could say that at least that was one less trip for someone to make out in the rain to come get her, because he wasn't allowed within a wide radius of where she was going to get her hair and makeup done for the event.

He could feel a heaviness in his chest as he looked at the untouched pillow, usually covered in a tangle of Kaede's blonde hair at that time of morning, her always still asleep whenever he woke up. It was routine to roll over and stare at her as she slept, asking himself how he'd gotten so lucky to meet her, to fall in love with her, to have her as his future bride—and now, to have her somewhere else about to start getting ready to become his wife. Her blankets were exactly as they'd been when he went to sleep the night before, when usually they'd have been tossed over onto him at some point and she'd be laying there in her tank top and shorts, completely exposed to the chilly air in their bedroom without a care in the world. Everything felt empty without her, even though he knew where she was and accepted the noble reason for why she was there, but still he couldn't shake the feeling that she belonged there in the bed with him above anywhere else.

She wasn't there though, and Shuichi wasn't going to be able to see her until the wedding started, wherever it was going to be held. His mind began to flood with thoughts about the intentions for the ceremony, how it was supposed to be outdoors among the spring flowers so that they didn't have to have too much of a decorating budget. The biggest expense they'd had for the ceremony itself was getting a grand piano moved outdoors, something that Kaede had begged and pleaded for because she wanted to have proper piano music at all times. They'd found a company that would move the piano from their home out to the park where the wedding was planned to be and then return it after the ceremony, and they'd been by to pick it up the night before. What that meant if it had been raining for long could have been nothing short of a disaster, and that was being hopeful that vandals hadn't visited it in the park overnight.

The mere thought of Kaede's piano being destroyed by criminals or nature itself did not help the sick feeling he'd developed in the pit of his stomach, and he slowly rolled back over before getting up out of bed, walking to the window to see the damage outside. It was just a gentle rain shower, nothing too terrible, and while the grasses and plants looked lush and green from the moisture it was obvious that it had been raining for most of the night. He needed to call someone, to ask them if there was any kind of backup plan that had been developed because he certainly hadn't been allowed to make one.

His alarm going off was what pulled him away from the window, and while he usually used his phone's alarm it was the one built in to his old bedside clock that was buzzing obnoxiously. That prompted him to freeze mid-step towards the clock, checking all of his surroundings for his phone, before the panic that had built subsided when he remembered that he didn't have it. To eliminate any unnecessary stresses, as well as any temptation for them to try talking, members of the wedding party had stripped him and Kaede both of their phones before separating them. In theory it was a grand gesture of kindness, but now it was only adding to the mess that this wedding morning had turned into.

After turning the alarm off, and unplugging the clock for good measure, Shuichi left the bedroom and wandered the empty halls of the home, aimlessly walking to try and calm his frazzled nerves. Usually by the time he was out of bed Kaede was as well, and she started almost every morning with some piano practice that he tended to sit and listen to; that morning there was no piano to be played, and no Kaede to play the piano if it had even been there, doing nothing but adding to the emptiness of the occasion. This was weird, he'd spent many days there without her around to keep him company and yet it was this one morning in particular that was hitting him hard.

"I hope someone comes by soon," he said after pacing around the entire house a couple times, doing nothing productive while keeping himself moving. "At this point I'd accept anyone, as long as they're here for something good." The worry that things were unfixable with the weather being how it was had begun to worm its way deep into his brain, and without his phone or any way to contact anyone in the wedding party there was little that Shuichi could do except start growing anxious for the impending bad news. His feet led him back to the bedroom, where he found himself in front of the window once more, looking out into the misty morning. It seemed to have stopped raining, for at least the moment, which if the skies cleared that would be a positive sign.

Turning to look at the open closet on the other side of the room, he noticed that the bulky bag that had been taking up most of the storage space was missing, a good sign because he knew that the bag contained whatever dress Kaede had decided on for the wedding and she'd have been in trouble if he had it and she didn't. However, snuggled up against the door, where it had been out of view while the large bag had been there, was a much smaller bag that belonged to him. Without much else to do aside from sit around and wait for someone to show up, he went around the bed to the closet and grabbed the bag, not opening it but throwing it over his shoulder as he carried it out of the room and hung it up on a curtain-rod out in the main room.

He wasn't going to get dressed until someone was around to help him calm his nerves, as right then he was beginning to fear that if he got dressed, he'd do nothing but dirty up the clothes somehow. Sure, he'd be able to find a way to solve the problem without too much effort, but if anything were to happen to that rental tuxedo he would be out a lot more money than he could afford right then. (He, of course, had several well-worn and loved tuxedos elsewhere in the closet, but he'd wanted to wear something a lot nicer for the wedding than something she'd seen him wearing at her concerts before. It had been Kaede's idea in the first place that he rent one, and when all of his groomsmen were able to coordinate and get similar ones as his, it seemed like it was a perfect decision.)

As he stood in the empty room, he could hear the sound of the rain picking up once again and he scrambled to throw the curtains open from the big window, a place usually not as accessible due to the piano that was normally in front of it. The skies had clouded back over and it was pouring outside, and the puddles that were beginning to form on the sidewalks were concerning; was the wedding, even if there was a backup indoor location, going to be flooded out? They'd been planning it for over a year, easily. There was no way that Kaede was going to be able to take everything she'd been longing for being postponed by the weather, and he was eager to get things over with, meaning that having to wait longer would be a disappointment in his eyes.

He hadn't wanted to _have_ a wedding in the first place, not because of the monetary cost or the time that it spent to plan it, but because the idea of having to go through such typical motions in front of everyone they knew didn't feel necessary to him. He'd tried talking Kaede into doing something simple, or just doing the legal bits and skipping the rest, but she had been adamant in her desire to get to have all of their friends and family there for a ceremony they'd never forget. Even when he told her that she could still get a dress and wear it when they signed all the paperwork, she refused to do anything but wear that dress of her dreams down an aisle with familiar faces on either side.

Everything about the wedding was by her design, if he was being honest with himself. The time of year when it took place, where it was going to be held, how people were going to be arranged, it was all something that she'd come up with and planned out with her friends, but she'd always made the effort to include him in the plans just in case he had something he wanted to include. His one requirement was that it be early enough in the day, so that they could be done before nightfall, and she'd been happy to accept that—except now that it was pouring outside, he was regretting making that choice. If they'd had it mid-afternoon, instead of right before lunchtime as was planned, there'd have been more of a chance for the rain to pass and for the wedding to go off without a hitch.

Still looking outside and lamenting the fact that it was raining on the one day he'd rather it not, he noticed a fancy car pull up outside the house and park illegally on the street. Amused, he started watching what the driver was trying to do, but when the door opened and the person inside emerged, the sense of amusement washed out of his body almost at once. That car door was slammed loudly and the driver started making a run for the house, a hand raised above his head to try and block some of the rain from ruining his elaborately-spiked hair, and all Shuichi could do right then was head to the front door and open it without waiting for a knock.

"Great day you've picked to get married, sidekick!" Kaito sarcastically announced once he was inside, his jacket soaking wet and his hair's gel having lost its battle with the rain and beginning to droop. "Not that you can control the weather, of course, but it's kinda not looking like Kaede's dream wedding's going to happen like she wants."

"You're telling me," he replied, the loneliness in his body having faded now that his best friend was there but his heart continuing to make residence down in his stomach. "She's got to be devastated at all this rain, she was really looking forward to—"

"Don't be sounding so down, it's all going to be fine! Last I heard, all the ladies are working hard to get plan B in action, which means that it's my job to come get you and take you to the new venue!" Puffing his chest out with pride, Kaito's exuberant attitude seemed to deflate as his hair fell forward into his face, which he had to then try to spike back up to save face. "C'mon, Shuichi, you can't tell me you didn't know I was coming; we planned this a long time ago and I made sure to get it right for ya."

There was a lot happening in what Kaito had just told him, but Shuichi chose to only comment on the last thing said. "No, I knew you were coming, I just didn't know when and if you'd be here alone or not. Figured that all you guys would've come by to get me, not just one of you."

"The others were finishing getting dressed before going to meet the ladies. Well, the ladies except Maki Roll, since she…y'know, kinda was the one who was going to be helping your bride get ready for the big day." Still trying to make his dampened hair stand up as it should have, Kaito gave a sigh of defeat and let the soggy spikes fall down where they wanted to. "I'm in charge of makin' sure you make it from here to where the wedding's gonna be for real, then I've gotta make sure you don't see your woman until it's time for all that."

"Yes, I'm well-aware of how weddings are supposed to work," Shuichi mumbled, trying to keep his voice low as to not be heard by Kaito. As exciting as it was to know that there had been a second plan all along, he wasn't looking forward to seeing how bare wherever they were going would be, as the natural beauty of the flowers had been intended as the only decorations. They'd put so much work into getting their outdoor venue set up that having to scrap the idea felt almost as bad as the idea of rescheduling the entire thing, but he could hope that Kaede had been given some say in what was going to happen.

Kaito raised his eyebrows at his friend, giving him a once-over and taking note of how he seemed to be closing himself off to everything in the moment. "Hey, dude, is everything okay? I know it's a big day and all, but you've gotta not let the details stress you out! We've got it all under control, you know?"

"I'm not stressing out, don't worry." He was lying, but it wasn't the details that had him feeling the effects of stress; it was the possibility of Kaede being heartbroken over things not being as she'd wanted them. He knew that Kaito was right and that he shouldn't be stressing over anything at all, and so he decided to change the subject to something else that was on his mind now that he knew they'd successfully changed where the wedding was going to be. "Has everyone who's attending been told of the new location? I don't want our families showing up at the park when we're all at a church or something like that."

"You think we moved it to a _church_?" Kaito asked, surprised at the suggestion. "That would just cause a lot of problems since you invited Angie to the whole thing, don't you think? You'd be in the middle of the ceremony and she'd start blabbin' about Atua this, and Atua that, and everything would just come to a stop. They found somewhere better than a church for it to be held, don't you worry."

Raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, Shuichi said, "It was just a guess, and that wasn't even the important part of what I said, Kaito. I wanted to know if you managed to tell everyone where it's been moved to."

"Oh, right, yeah we told everyone. Thanks for giving us your phones, helped a lot."

"Because that was what you had in mind for them when you forced us to hand them over last night." Still pinching his nose, Shuichi happened to look at Kaito as he grinned towards him, giving a playful shrug when he saw he was being watched. "You went through my pictures, didn't you?"

"Can't say that I did," Kaito replied, his voice sing-songing as he spoke. "But I _can_ say that you've really got to tone down your conversations while you're working, what if someone saw the things you're sending her when you're doing an investigation? For shame, sidekick, for shame."

His face heating up at the accusation, he let go of his nose and instead brought both hands to cover where his cheeks were beginning to redden. "I'm sure that anything you read pales in comparison to the naughty things you've sent to Maki before, seeing as you've sent me some of those on accident." Those were memories he would rather not have been forced to unearth, but Shuichi felt like he was being backed into a corner with the shaming and he needed to bring out the big firepower. "It doesn't even make sense how you'd mix me up with her, at least when she sends things to Kaede on accident that's understandable."

"H-hey, we promised not to talk about what I've sent you! Those were classified plans and you weren't supposed to know about them!" Now it was Kaito's turn to become bright red in the face, as if there was a double standard that allowed him to talk about risqué messages but not have to hear about his own. "C'mon man, let's just forget that we saw some of your flirty texts and call it done, is that fair?"

It wasn't fair by any means, and they had to take a couple minutes to cool down from thinking about what they'd seen the other say in private, but they were able to move past things easily. The rain was still pouring down outside, based on the sound of it hitting the roof above their heads, and it didn't seem plausible to sit around and wait for the storm to pass before leaving to go to the wedding. That meant that Shuichi could either get ready there in the house and hope that he could manage to stay dry in transport, something that he could do with the aid of an umbrella, or he could take the tuxedo in its bag with him and hope that there would be somewhere to change when they arrived. Kaito's suggestion was to get dressed there, then wear the bag over himself to stay dry while outside, and even though it was a dumb idea, it seemed like it would work and since there wasn't much time to go searching for an umbrella, it was what they went with.

"If this doesn't work and I'm dripping water everywhere during the ceremony, I'm blaming you and you alone," Shuichi told Kaito as he was grabbing the bag from where he'd hung it so he could go get ready. "I'm not going to have a good time if I have to stand there cold and wet while I'm already shaking."

"It'll work, you've just gotta believe it will!" Kaito's reply came with an eager thumbs-up, followed with an additional statement that did not help Shuichi's nerves at all. "And if it doesn't work, we'll just pretend like it did and not notice you're wet. Can't be too hard, not when the rest of us are gonna be soaked."

"Er, thanks for that, Kaito." With the bag in hand, Shuichi went back to his room and began changing out of his lounge pants and dark shirt that he slept in, in exchange for the much fancier tuxedo that he needed to keep pristine. He was in the process of buttoning up his shirt when the bedroom door opened and Kaito slipped inside, having resumed his attempts at fixing his hair. Thankful that he was decent (even though their friendship was strong enough that if he hadn't been, everything would've been fine), he tried to not acknowledge that he'd been walked in on, but Kaito had other ideas.

Those ideas included walking over to the strangely empty closet and digging through the bottom of it, where a bunch of Kaede's shoes were piled. "I just got asked if we could find some better shoes for the bridesmaids, 'cause I guess the ones they had got a little muddy when they were out taking apart the whole tent we'd set up for the wedding," he explained, regardless of if Shuichi was paying attention or not. "I'm not really sure what I'm looking for but—hey, an umbrella!"

True to Kaito's exclamation, what he held up was not a pair of shoes but a bright pink umbrella that he waved around. "Don't open that in here," Shuichi warned, "because I'm not letting you put more bad luck on this whole thing. Just find the shoes that you got asked to get, then come help me with my tie."

"I'm not the guy you want to be asking for help with ties, save it for once we're there. I'm not getting my own tie on until someone else can do it for me, so you can wait too." Kaito was back in the closet, rifling through all of the assorted shoes with one hand while he still held the umbrella in the other. He eventually got several different pairs, and found what looked like an old laptop case to shove them in; satisfied with his work he carried his findings with him and went to where Shuichi was mostly ready, the only parts of his outfit missing being his tie and his own shoes. "Whoa there, did my sidekick suddenly grow into a big man while my back was turned?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just…more dressed up than usual." Looking at himself, Shuichi understood why Kaito had said that but didn't want to think too much about it. They'd both been there when the other was getting fitted for their rental outfit, they'd already seen each other ready for the occasion, but now there he was, mostly dressed for the real deal. "It's all going to work, I'm just going to wear the bag out, under the umbrella, and we're going to make it there nice and dry."

"Speak for yourself on the 'dry' part," Kaito replied, shaking one of his arms with his galaxy-print hooded jacket on it. "This thing got soaked right through, you're gonna be up there looking like a million bucks and I'm gonna be the one shaking from being wet under my suit jacket. Which is in my car, by the way, don't let me forget that."

"Somehow I doubt you'd forget that if you're as wet as you say you are."

A large, sneaky smile appeared on Kaito's face. "Is that something you'd usually say to a friend, or is that reserved for Kaede normally?" He had to dodge an elbow to his stomach for it, but he'd considered that a fair payment for his comment. There didn't seem to be much time left to spend at the house after that, and so once Shuichi got his shoes on and gave a good look at himself in the first mirror he could find in the house, they locked everything and set out in the still-pouring rain, getting to the car that Kaito had rented for the specific purpose of being able to drive the groom around in style without either of them getting too much water on them.

The ride started off silent, the only words coming from Kaito as he was grumbling directions to the new venue under his breath. Shuichi spent the entire drive looking out the window, hoping to see any glimpses of blue skies between the dreary clouds that were hanging over town. He was hopeful that wherever everyone had decided to move things to, it would go off without too much more of a hitch than a last-minute change of that size had already been, but he also knew that Kaede was going to be upset about the weather ruining her plans in the first place. Not just that, but now her bridesmaids had their shoes ruined by the weather as well, so that was going to only add to her frustrations.

They drove past the park where they were supposed to have been holding the wedding, and his whole body flinched at the sight of the empty field, the only sign that something had been there as recent as the night before being the bare tentpoles that had been there for some breezy canopies. The plants on both sides of the park were in full bloom, pink and purple blossoms getting drenched by the downpour, and he understood why it was there, of all places, that Kaede had wanted the wedding to be. There was just one problem, something that Shuichi had been fearful of from the start but now had seen come to fruition: the piano, which had definitely been there the night before, was completely gone. He could have asked Kaito about it, but he was so wrapped up in following the directions of the road that distracting him could have had dire consequences.

It was something he'd have to address with the bride herself after everything was said and done, he decided, and he left it at that. His eyes were still running themselves over everything that they were passing, and he found himself recognizing every building, every turn onto every street that they were going by. The way they were going wasn't a path he traveled often, but he knew of one place that he and Kaede went to whenever they went down that road, and as unlikely as it seemed, it felt like they were headed that direction. "Say, Kaito, where exactly is this place that we're going? Aren't we going down towards the arts district in town?"

The sound of Shuichi's voice made Kaito jump in his seat, but he regained his composure quickly and chuckled. "Damn it, I forgot to blindfold you before we started, now you know where we're goin', don't you?" He was assured that no, he didn't know exactly but had a guess, but that wasn't satisfying enough of an answer. "Look, I know how to get to this place whenever we're driving there to meet you, but from your house is a different story. I'm not supposed to be asking you for help, but…help a bro out, will you? We're going exactly where you think we are, and if we end up somewhere else then I'll haveta come clean then."

"I never even said where I thought you were taking me." Reading the signs that Kaito had been caught red-handed without actually being told anything, Shuichi decided it would be best to just help him get to where he thought they were going anyway, and began taking control of giving directions. He had the feeling that they were headed towards a local music theater, somewhere that Kaede loved taking him whenever she found new musicians to listen and learn from, and if there was anywhere in the world that she'd be okay with her wedding being moved to, it seemed like the right place.

When they pulled up outside, a car identical to the one they were in was sitting against the curb in front of them, and Kaito nearly slammed his head down on the steering wheel in frustration at seeing it. "We're here later than they are, and you're not blindfolded, this is already going badly," he muttered, before throwing his door open and stepping outside into the chilly air, which was more misty than rainy at that point. "At least it's not coming down in drops, but you just stay in there and don't come out and get wet. I'll see if it's safe for us to go inside."

Shuichi nodded, making sure to shield his eyes in case someone was still inside the other car while he sat there waiting. His nerves were absolutely fried at that point, having hit a level of nervousness he'd never known he could experience. Even when he'd proposed to Kaede in the first place, by hiding the ring under her piano key cover so that when she went to play it was on the first key of her favorite song, he hadn't felt this nervous. How was he ever going to make it into the building, down the aisle, and through the whole ceremony without breaking down in front of everyone?

Someone tapped on the window and he initially reacted by moving his hand, but quickly brought it back up over his eyes before he could see who was there. Instead of looking, he rolled down the window to let voices do the work. "Why are you doing that, dude?" Kaito asked, not getting that his friend had made a makeshift blindfold to do what he'd forgotten to. "It's safe outside, everyone's inside except for some of the guests who aren't here yet, which is fine because it means we can get in without anyone stopping you to talk. I'm gonna shut the car off, you just run inside, first room on the left is the one you want."

"Sounds good to me," he replied, rolling the window back up and opening the door, meeting Kaito outside the car for a quick fist-bump (at Kaito's insistence) before heading into the building. He was used to the entry area being full of people trying to push their mixtapes or crafted goods onto unsuspecting visitors that seeing it so empty was strange, and once he went in through the main glass doors he was headed right over to where Kaito had told him to go, the first door on the left propped open slightly and a light on inside. He got as far as pushing it open a crack to look inside when a dark-haired woman popped up in front of him, her eyes wide and lips pursed into a straight line as she stared at him. "O-oh, hey there, Tenko," he greeted, stepping back as she came closer to him. "What's going on?"

"That's the question I should be asking you, you degenerate male!" she barked in reply, coming even closer to him and bringing the door closed with her as she pushed him further out into the lobby. "Even on your wedding day you can't be bothered with not peeping in on the women while they're changing! You're lucky that Kaede isn't in there right now, she'd have killed you for ruining the surprise!"

"That's the women's changing room?" Shuichi watched as Tenko gave him a slow nod, as if he wasn't comprehending what was going on. "But Kaito said—"

"Since when does he know left from right? The men are over there," she pointed at the closed door directly across from where they were, the first door on the _right_ coming inside the glass doors, "and that's where you belong. Now go, before your bride gets back and she sees you and you see her, exactly what we're trying to prevent!" She nearly pushed him to make her point, but he was already stumbling backwards, turning around and running across to the other room.

Opening that door didn't lead to the same animosity pushing open the other one had, and he was greeted this time by the members of his half of the wedding party, minus Kaito who was still outside. "We were beginning to worry that you weren't going to make it to your own wedding," Rantaro commented, putting the cap on a bottle of nail polish with one hand while he examined the shine of his nails on the other. "We told Kaito to have you here almost thirty minutes ago."

"But he's already dressed, so that's something we didn't account for," Kiibo said, his robotic voice coming as a pleasant surprise to Shuichi as he'd thought that he wasn't going to be there for the preparation part of the morning. "You were all worried that he would come in unprepared, but it looks like you were wrong."

"Heh, yeah, I got ready before we left my house. Didn't know if there'd be somewhere like this when we got here." It was then that Shuichi reached into his pocket and grabbed the one piece of his outfit that wasn't finished, holding it high for everyone to see. "Kaito told me to wait until I was here to get my tie on, so does someone mind helping me with it?"

Rantaro's excuse was that he'd just put a clear coat on his nails and didn't want the polish to smudge, and Kiibo claimed that his metal fingers weren't nimble enough to get a knot in a tie correctly, which meant that there was one person left who could hopefully help. "I can do it for you, if you get down low enough for me to reach," Ryoma told him, his deep voice a bit more fitting when he looked as cleaned up as he was. "I'm no master at it, but I was the one who told Kaito to save it for when you got here."

"Thanks for that, he's going to need it too once he's in here." Squatting down with his tie still in hand, he gave it to Ryoma, who made quick work of tying it correctly and getting the whole tuxedo put together for him in a flash. Thanking him again, Shuichi thought about how this man wasn't even supposed to be part of the wedding party, but the original choice Kiibo had felt uncomfortable with being up where everyone could see him and had wanted someone to go in his place. When the choices were Kokichi, Ryoma, Kiyo, or Gonta, it felt natural to ask the person who was least likely to ruin things in some way to step in; now that decision had paid off and he couldn't be more thankful for it.

The door came flying open and Kaito came in, face red and his hair once again completely drenched and flat on his head. "Shuichi, my sidekick, my brother in everything except blood, I didn't tell ya to go to the first door on the left, did I?" he asked, shaking off his head and sending water dripping everywhere in the room. "Because if I did, I am _so_ sorry about that, I knew it was on the right and I should've just let ya come inside with me. Tenko about kicked my ass out there over it."

"She almost kicked mine too, but it's fine." Now with his tie on, Shuichi felt like he looked decent enough to not make a total fool of himself in front of everyone, and he gave Kaito a shaky smile, noticing that he was still wearing his purple jacket and not his suit one, and that he had the umbrella closed in one hand. "Let me guess, it started raining again?"

"It did, and I came in, nearly got beat by Tenko, ran back out 'cause I forgot the shoes and my jacket, came back again, gave them the shoes, and got over here as fast as I could." He was glancing around the room, looking for something in particular, before giving a request: "Does anyone in here have any hair gel? Mine got royally screwed by the rain a couple times over now."

"I'll go acquire some from the women, I know they had a bag full of those sorts of supplies," Kiibo answered, moving from where he had been against the back wall of the little room to head to the door. "You should really finish getting dressed, as you know you were late to meeting us here and you're still not ready to go."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get ready once my hair's back to looking fine." Kaito was setting the umbrella down and unzipping his jacket, what he was supposed to change into falling out of it once it was open. "I figured it was safest to try keepin' it dry in there, rather than over my shoulder or something. That rain's getting wild outside, the umbrella wasn't even doing much to stop it."

Kiibo slipped out of the door while Kaito switched which jacket he was wearing, before bending down so Ryoma could get his tie situated for him, and by the time they were finished the robot had returned with a can of hairspray in his possession. "They said that no one had brought any gel, but Maki suggested that you try using this instead."

"Good ol' Maki Roll, always knowing what's best for me." Without caring about the fumes or the other people present, Kaito took the can, removed its lid, and began spraying his hair wildly, trying to spike it up with his other hand. It worked, at the cost of the other three humans present choking on the taste of the spray. Rantaro and Ryoma were both able to make a break for the door, but Shuichi couldn't follow them out and was forced to suffer in the tainted air until Kaito finished up. "There," he said, patting the top of his hair and finding it sufficiently styled, "I think that'll do it. Where'd the others go?"

At the same time, Shuichi and Kiibo both answered the question, that they'd left to flee the spray. "You should have stepped out to take care of that," Kiibo politely told him, while Shuichi looked down at the floor and hoped that he wouldn't be asked to say anything else. The nerves were beginning to pick up in intensity once more and he felt like there was a frog jumping around his insides. "Someone in here was unable to escape your wild spraying due to social conventions, and you weren't exactly courteous towards him."

"If he felt I did something wrong, he'd tell me that, right, sidekick of mine?" Kaito was looking expectantly towards Shuichi, but getting nothing in return, which he felt proved him right. "See, no harm no foul right there. Now do the ladies need this back, or do we get to keep it in here? I don't think it's much longer until we're supposed to be getting this party started, so I doubt they still need it."

"I was not informed about needing to return it, if that helps matters." Kiibo bowed his head, before raising it towards Kaito once more. "You are correct on it almost being time for the ceremony to start, which means that we should all be taking our places. You'll be able to get the groom to the correct starting point, right?"

"We've only been practicing all night, of course I can get him there!" Tossing the still-open can off to the side, Kaito punched one fist into his waiting other hand, grinning as he did. "I'm not going to screw this up, I'm Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars and best man at this wedding! I've got one job and damn it, I'm going to do it!"

There was something about what Kaito had said that sat weird in Shuichi's mind, and it wasn't his loud proclamation of his role in the ceremony. He'd just mentioned practicing all night, which hadn't been something that had been arranged by bride or groom; everyone who was in the wedding had gone through the basic motions a couple of days before but they hadn't done more than a brief walkthrough. "Wait a second, why were you practicing?" he managed to ask, at about the same time that Kiibo left to go find his seat to watch what was coming. "What was there to practice?"

"Oh, you know, how to walk in at the right time and all that. It was kind of something that we wanted to make sure we got right," Kaito told him, his grin remaining resilient even while talking. "We also decided where we're gonna put ya while we wait for things to start, but that was this morning once we were all here checking everything out. You're gonna love how the room looks when we get there, but now we've gotta, y'know, get there. Close those eyes, we're heading out!"

Shuichi didn't like the feeling of blindly following Kaito, but he knew there wasn't much of a choice and so as he closed his eyes, he held out a hand that was tightly grabbed. He was pulled along for a minute or so, before being directed to stand exactly where he was but to keep his eyes closed. Several other hands began touching him, and Kaito's voice was there to tell him that it was just the groomsmen, and that they were making sure he looked fine, but that he needed to stay still. Up against his back he could feel a wall, and there was the temptation to lean back against it but he didn't know if that was allowed.

For a moment, the hand holding his let go of it, but it was quickly replaced and he thought nothing of it until he felt fingers actually interlacing with his own. It wasn't Kaito's hand he was holding anymore, and he knew exactly whose hand he was touching. "Okay bro, you've gotta keep facing forward no matter _what_, you hear me?" Kaito said, at the same time that he could hear Maki's voice saying something nearly identical just around the corner he was fairly certain he was standing at. "You turn your head, you ruin the surprise of seeing your bride out at the altar, and lemme tell ya, that's one surprise you don't want ruined."

Cracking one eye open, Shuichi could see that there were a lot more people in front of him than he'd realized. Kaito, Rantaro, and Ryoma were all there, as were Maki, Tenko, and Miu, and there were a couple photographers standing in between the groups, already taking pictures. "What's all this about?" he asked, opening the other eye so that he could see everyone fully. "Why are we doing this right now?"

"To test our strength of keeping our eyes off of each other, I think." He wasn't expecting Kaede to be the one to respond, but when she spoke she squeezed his hand a little bit tighter, sending flutters up his arm and into his heart. "I think it's kind of cruel, they know how much we want to see each other."

"Y-yeah, they should know that." It was painful to know she was right there around the corner, dressed in whatever gown she'd chosen and dolled up more than he'd ever seen before, yet he couldn't see her quite yet. "I'm sure these pictures they're getting are worth it, no matter how hard it is."

She giggled, the sound of which was enough to get him to take in a sharp breath. "I'm so excited to get the real thing happening, I'm ready to go up there right now and get this over with! I bet you feel the same way, don't you, sweetheart?"

There was a response to that on his tongue, but he was melting from her use of a pet name in front of all their friends and he couldn't manage to get it out. "Oh, would you look at that, she's using her last moments before signing her life away to him getting him all worked up," Miu loudly said, as if she was trying to announce things to people who weren't in the general area. "Why, if we weren't here, I'm sure she'd be trying to sneak some Saihara into her before she should be!"

"Don't be so vulgar at a time like this!" Tenko chided, stomping her foot down onto the top of Miu's, which managed to make Miu shrink back and start looking like she was getting turned on by the dominance and bossiness of the other woman. "We've put in all this work and you're going to ruin it because you want to say such nasty things! Why were you even selected for this role, Kaede deserves better!"

"She d-does deserve better than me." It was a concession that Miu barely managed to get out before she added something worse to it, something about how she felt Kaede also deserved someone better than the man she was marrying. Hearing that would have been a bit disheartening to Shuichi if it had been said by literally anyone other than Miu, but he was used to her putting him down for not being "ideal" enough for anyone.

Fortunately for him, and everyone else there, someone else was willing to step in and redirect things to where they needed to be. "I think our time here is up," Maki said firmly, pushing a hand between the two bridesmaids to get them off of each other before one got too turned on by the other. "We've got places to be, and that means actually getting to them."

"Means we've got to get going too," Ryoma remarked, looking up at Rantaro, who was rather fixated at looking just past where Shuichi was able to see—meaning that he was looking at Kaede, however gorgeous she was in that moment. "Come on, I want to get there before the people start coming to see where everyone is."

As they left, Maki and Kaito began doing what they needed to do to ensure that the bride and groom remained blind to the other's appearance, getting them to close their eyes and follow them wherever they needed to go. As they were behind the ladies, Shuichi could hear the tapping of heeled shoes against the floor for a while, until it disappeared from his ears unexpectedly, even though they were still moving. When he was given permission to reopen his eyes minutes later, he could see Maki standing with the bridesmaids but Kaede was nowhere to be found, which he'd expected but had been hoping wouldn't happen. "You ready for this?" she asked him when she noticed he was looking in her direction. "Or do you want to die?"

Usually when those words left Maki's mouth, they were said in a harsh manner, but this seemed like a genuine question that she was asking him. "I'm somewhere in the middle," he admitted, trying to ignore his rapidly-beating heart and the feeling of sweat building underneath the collar of his shirt. "Just want to get it over with."

"I think a lot of us feel the same way." Turning away from him, Maki straightened out the front of her dress, the pale pink fabric something he didn't usually see her in. "I'm ready for all of this to be over, it's been a lot of work helping you guys get it right."

"Will the two of you stop talking?" Tenko snapped, turning around from where she was at the front of the women's line, her dress identical to Maki's minus the addition of a purple flower pinned right above her chest. "I'm not going to let the degenerate groom and the maid of honor conspire to ruin everything right as—"

The sound of piano music began filtering through the building, coming through the speakers that the venue had all over the walls. It was gentle, peaceful music that wouldn't traditionally be found at a wedding, and the sound of it helped calm Shuichi's nerves for just a second (even though Tenko, in her last moment before facing forward once again, gave him a nasty glare that was unsettling). It wasn't until the people in front of him started moving into specific places that he realized that things were actually happening, things that they'd talked about before but hadn't actually practiced before.

He looked to Kaito for some sort of encouragement or guidance on what to do, but all he got was his friend moving one hand in time with the music, as if he'd rehearsed what he needed to do to the sound. "It's not time yet, don't worry," he said as if he knew he was being watched, "but it's almost time. We should get moving now though, so that when it is time we're already in position."

"So, then it is time, right?" Shuichi wasn't sure what nonsense Kaito was trying to spout, but it wasn't making any sense to him. "If we're going to go, then it's time."

"No, it's not time until…" Kaito's hand froze, and the music that was playing changed to another song, faster-paced than the one before it but still beautifully played. "Until that happens. C'mon, that's our cue to get up to the front so this can all get started!" For saying that they were going to the front of the building, Kaito sure did seem to want to go anywhere but there, letting all of the members of the wedding party get in final words before leading Shuichi down the side of the room. They walked quickly, and the pace of their movement was beginning to kick up the anxiety in Shuichi's mind once again, but Kaito seemed to know what he was doing exactly and when they came out at the end of the aisle, right by the altar, joining the officiant that had been up there for however long, he showed that what he was doing really _had_ been rehearsed.

* * *

Standing at the front of everyone gathered there was more intimidating than he'd expected it to be, but there was no way for him to tell that to anyone in words at that point. Every single face in the organized rows of chairs was familiar to him, whether it was a friend of theirs, an old classmate, someone either of them had worked with, or family members, and they were all staring in his direction. Even with Kaito right there at his side, he couldn't pretend like anyone was looking anywhere but at him, and he could feel himself warming up from the attention. Staying up there like that for much longer wouldn't work well in his favor, he needed things to get started soon before he felt like he'd need to break for it.

The music changed again, and when it picked back up it seemed to be being played by shakier hands, but it was the traditional wedding march that he'd been expecting the entire time. First down the aisle came Kaede's mother, a woman that Shuichi had only met a few times in all of his time spent with her daughter but recognized immediately due to her similar appearance to his bride, down to the way she wore her hair loose down her back. After she took her seat in the second-to-last open chair in the front row, the next people began to follow her lead, those being Tenko and Rantaro, walking with each other every step of the way. From this angle, Shuichi could see that Tenko was trying her best to look thrilled to be walking next to a man, while Rantaro seemed focused on just getting to the front without accidentally touching her.

Once they were halfway to the altar, the next pair started making their way down, and as funny as it was to see Miu and her double-pinned flowers on her chest walking right next to small, stoic Ryoma, what caught Shuichi's attention was how Maki was standing at the back, arms crossed in front of her, completely alone. A pang of worry coursed through his body, concerned that maybe something had happened and he wasn't the one getting cold feet after all, but he couldn't let himself think like that. They had to just be saving the reveal until the last possible moment, that was all it was. Just like before, when the pair coming down the aisle made it halfway, the next person in line made their start, and Maki made herself look at least a little more excited to be there as she came down in time with the music.

Following her was the gaggle of flower girls that Kaede had specially chosen for the day, all running in with their baskets full of flower petals that they excitedly threw as they came down the aisle. These were all children she'd given piano lessons over the years, and they all seemed to be so happy to be included that they didn't care that there were five of them for one role. After they'd made it to the end and looped through the front to take their seats on the edges of some of the further-back rows, everyone's attention shifted towards the start of the aisle to wait for what they knew was coming.

Shuichi could feel his legs beginning to tremble, and he hoped it wasn't going to escalate to the point of his knees buckling as he stood there, people he trusted with his life there to support him. As much as he didn't want to pull his eyes away from where they were all watching, he glanced towards Kaito anyway, who was watching _him_ with an excited expression. "Dude, you're going to miss it," Kaito whispered, nudging him with his leg to get him to look back where he should've been. "She's a real beauty, you'll wanna see her every second you can."

If there were words to try and question that statement, they weren't accessible to Shuichi there in that moment. He did as he was told, looking back to see that there was movement happening down at the other end of the aisle. It was Kaede's father, a rather solemn-looking man who seemed to be standing rigid and tall as he paused intentionally after every step to get into his position. His arm was out, bent at the elbow and waiting for something to interlace with it, and as everyone watched, that something made its way out from behind the curtain that formed the makeshift wall they'd been operating behind.

All at once, every bit of fear and worry and stress and anxiety about the wedding vacated Shuichi's mind, even though he was beginning to shake like a leaf standing there. Kaede looked absolutely breathtaking as she locked arms with her father and they began to walk down the aisle together. Her hair was completely pinned up, braided and twisted and turned into what looked like a bouquet of hair-made flowers on her head, which matched with the one in her hand, the pink and purple blossoms standing out bright against her pure white dress. It was strapless, her shoulders completely bare of both fabric and hair for once in her life, and it held tightly to her torso before billowing out into a sea of white lace and silk, hitting the ground at her feet and dragging behind her for the length of several of their steps. As they came closer, he could tell how red her face was, despite it being masked under what he assumed were several layers of makeup, courtesy of her friends, and if she looked to be blushing that hard he could only imagine how he looked watching her.

When they made it to the front, her father gently took his arm away from hers before lightly kissing her cheek and moving towards his seat, while she stepped up closer to her half of the wedding party, handing off her bouquet and taking her spot at the altar, allowing for everything to get started. The man who'd been arranged to officiate the wedding got right to work, beginning his reading without much in the way of a delay, and even though they should have been listening to what was being said, neither the bride nor the groom were paying much attention to anything but each other. She would mouth things to him about how cute he was, he'd reply that she was the cute one, they'd go back and forth until there was a pause in the talking, then resume once the officiant was off on his next tangent.

They were making fun for themselves during the boring parts of the ceremony, something that very few others would have been able to do, but when it came down to it they were able to get serious and go through the motions as expected. They were directed to take each other by the hand, something they'd barely been able to resist doing while standing up there, and from there came the vows that they'd made independently of the other, to make them as true to the heart as they could. Shuichi had always intended for his to be short, and they'd been on replay in his mind since he'd first written them down weeks before, but when he started them as he'd practiced, the words began to tumble from his mouth without him knowing where they were going.

"I, Shuichi Saihara, take you, Kaede Akamatsu, to be my wife, my partner in crime and my partner in solving other's crimes," he opened with, and that was all he'd ever actually committed to on paper. It got a couple chuckles out of the men behind him, but he was so focused on staring deep into Kaede's shining eyes to notice the sound, and that was when his words began forming on their own. "I know I'm far from a perfect person, but you bring out the best of me with every part of you. I will be here for you when you need me, just as I know you're there when I need you, and together we will face the known and the unknown that life brings us."

The shine in her eyes began to glisten as she started to tear up, but even while emotional she let her own vows come across as steady as ever. "I, Kaede Akamatsu, take you, Shuichi Saihara, to be my husband, my duet partner from here until the end of time. You listen to me through the high notes, the low notes, the sweet and the sour notes, and even when things need to be tuned, you're there to see them through. Together we will make music, not always the same quality as at other times, but we will stick through the off-key songs to make it to the perfectly pitched ones."

It was fitting that they'd both created vows that included their life's interest, without the other knowing they had done that, and they were beaming at each other once her musical-themed vows were finished. The officiant wasted no time moving into the next part of the ceremony, asking them the I do's and having the rings presented to be exchanged. This was the part that they'd worked on together, coming up with a set of words that meant something to both of them without heavily favoring one's interests over the other.

With her ring now in his hand, Shuichi took in a deep breath as the officiant directed him to repeat after him as he slid the ring onto its rightful spot on finger. Piece by piece, he repeated the statement exactly as they'd written it: "Kaede, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness, and as I place it on your finger, I commit my heart and soul to you. I ask you to forever wear this ring as a token of my love, as a reminder of the vows we made, here on our wedding day." The ring looked right at home on her hand, and he was glad it could finally be where it belonged.

Now it was her turn to give him his ring, and while he'd never been one for any kind of hand jewelry, he was more than willing to wear the simple band she was giving him. Just like he had, she repeated their statement at the prompting of the officiant: "Shuichi, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness, and as I place it on your finger, I commit my heart and soul to you." The next line had a seconds-long pause before it, time during which she gave him a big, dramatic wink as that line's inclusion had been at her insistence. "I ask you to forever wear this ring as a token of my love, as a reminder of the vows we made, here on our wedding day."

The room turned completely silent, aside from a few sobs that were scattered throughout the seats, and the officiant went right along with his duties. "By the power vested in me," he said, looking between the two and their love-locked eyes, their eagerness to move on nearly tangible, "I now pronounce you husband and wife." He let the words linger in the air for a few seconds, before giving the addition everyone knew was coming and was so patiently waiting for. "You may now kiss your bride."

Their kiss came together like two magnets released to attract to the other, her leaning just as much towards him as he was towards her. The last thing he remembered seeing before shutting his eyes and letting his lips take control was the tears freely falling from her eyes, making them glimmer like pink gemstones. It felt unlike any kiss they'd experienced before: their first kiss had been awkward and giggly, their first long kiss had been broken by someone walking in on them, when they'd kissed before and after performances it was rushed and carried one simple meaning, the kiss they'd shared after his proposal had been passionate but short. This one was longer, him finding the power to pull her closer into him in front of everyone they knew, and if his arms hadn't felt like they'd snap if he tried anything with them he would have dipped her there at the altar. All good things had to come to an end, though, and when it felt appropriate to part lips that was exactly what they did, their eyes locking once more once they were apart.

Gently turning them to face their gathered guests, the officiant had one last thing to say before the ceremony was able to end. "To those gathered here today, for the first time as a married couple, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Kaede and Shuichi Saihara." The applause and cheers that erupted from everyone at the announcement brought many people to their feet, as hand-in-hand, the newly married couple made their way back down the aisle, passing everyone who was loudly supporting them. There were so many faces looking so happy for them that it was hard to notice any one in particular, yet when they got to the back row they could see all of their friends sitting there, giving positive gestures and almost all looking like they'd shed a tear or twenty for their first friends to get married.

The sounds of the cheering didn't fade until the entire wedding party was back behind the curtain, all standing there completely invigorated by what had just happened. "You both managed to get through that, somehow," Maki remarked, handing the bouquet she was still holding over to Kaede, who took it gratefully. "Now don't let that end up in my hands again later, I'm not interested in going through this myself anytime soon."

"Aw, c'mon, it looks like a whole lotta fun, once you get past all the planning and stress and less fun stuff that you have to do," Kaito replied, making her flinch at how he'd heard her despite her trying to keep it a conversation between ladies. "But now that all that's over, don't we have a party to get to?"

While adjusting the top part of her dress, which seemed to be straining a lot more than a properly-fitted dress should have, Miu stuck her head around the curtain, before pulling it back onto their side. "Looks like they're already starting to rearrange everything for it. Guess you'll have to keep it in your pants long enough for that to happen, then you can find a closet and go wild, Dumb-mota."

"W-whoa there, I wasn't gonna use the party as a cover for anything, why're you guessing something like that?" Kaito seemed to be taken aback by Miu's accusation, even though everyone else was letting it fly right by them, knowing she was just trying to get a rise out of him. "We all know you're the one who's hoping you can get in there to pull Kiibo out long enough to jump his robot bones, you don't have to project onto me!"'

"Psst, Shuichi," Kaede quietly said, using the cover of the brewing fight to mask her voice. He looked at her, confused as to what she could want, but then she began pulling his hand to lead him away from the group and to the room the ladies had been using to change before. Once they were inside, she locked the door and sighed happily, her face bright with the color of her happiness. "I'm so glad we managed to make this work out. When I woke up this morning to the rain, I almost lost my mind on poor Maki and Kaito, but they got me through it just fine."

"Yeah, Kaito did a good job of helping me through everything once he came over." Waking up that morning felt so long ago, even though it was barely noon at that point, if even. "They really seemed to have had this backup plan already arranged, which was really helpful."

"It wasn't them who did it," she corrected, shocking him that she knew that sort of information. "I know I wasn't supposed to know this, but I found out that they'd been practicing for the ceremony here after we'd talked about it with all of them, and I told them to just have it happen here instead of out at the park." As she was talking, she was fanning herself with her flowers, trying to keep her cool. "They made it happen, and that's so great because outside would _not_ have worked today, no way."

He wanted to say he was following along with her, but none of it made sense. If she'd known that they were moving the wedding inside anyway, then the work they'd done the night before to get things set up at the park had been pointless. "So why'd we move your piano outside then, if you knew we'd be here?"

"Oh, I didn't know we'd be here until this morning, when they told me. I suggested here as a backup option in case the park didn't work." Kaede froze for a second when she heard something knock against the wall, but it wasn't either of them so she didn't concern herself with it. "They took care of getting my piano inside for me last night, it's over at their house right now and we can get it back to ours whenever we want." She wiggled her fingers on her hand that wasn't occupied with holding the bouquet. "I got to warm-up on it this morning before we came over here, so that when I started playing music for everyone I wasn't super rusty at it."

"You played music today?" She nodded, and he realized that he could have guessed that anyway, when he was told to keep his eyes closed longer than he felt necessary back when everyone had first grouped up. It made sense that Kaito would know the musical cue to listen for if he'd heard her practicing it in his own home that morning. "It must've been weird not playing music for the ceremony itself, but whoever you picked did a good job of it."

Awkwardly giggling at what he said, Kaede felt like she needed to explain what she'd actually done. "About that…I didn't play the music at the piano myself, but I did play all of our music for the ceremony. They recorded me playing earlier today, then when we got here we had Miu hook up the recording to the speakers so that I could switch my actual playing out with it when I needed to get ready to go down the aisle."

"That's…amazing, Kaede, it really is." He wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to hearing about her being so insistent that it be her music playing that he had someone record her, but if it made her happy, it was fine by him. "Now what's the plan for the rest of this? Are you going to be playing anything for the reception, or are you going to let someone else handle the music?"

"We rented one of the DJs that usually puts on dance music here, they aren't charging us too much because it's for me and obviously they know me." Beaming, Kaede looked towards the door, where she checked to make sure it was still locked. "Maki's got the key to get back in here, she hid it in the top of her dress so that no one found it or it wouldn't fall out, and I'm surprised she hasn't tried kicking us out yet. You think they think we're in here being, oh, mischievous or something?"

There was a glint in her eye that flustered him, causing him to cough instead of formulate real words to reply with, and by the time he'd collected himself the door had been unlocked and Maki was standing in the now-open doorway, Tenko right behind her with her fists at the ready to break something up. "The presence of the bride and groom is being requested at the entrance to the reception," Maki's almost annoyed voice told them, her motioning back towards the other part of the building with her head. "They're all set up and ready to go and would like to get to start eating lunch sometime before dinner."

The pair looked at each other, before both turning to Maki with varying-sized smiles on their faces. She didn't seem to care that together they looked like they held as much excitement to rejoin everyone as one person normally would, just that they were following without putting up any sort of a fight. When they got to where the beginning of the aisle had been, she gave a loud whistle to quiet down the rumblings of conversation taking place in the reorganized gathering area, everyone turning to look to see what was going on. Tenko, cupping her mouth with her hands to amplify her voice, then did the honors of a proper announcement of their arrival. "Everyone, I introduce you to the guests of honor, the beautiful Kaede and the barely-passable Shuichi, the newlywed Saiharas!" Even with her blatant dig at one of the two, everyone seemed to cheer at her introduction, and from there the festivities were able to begin.

As people were getting their meals, the couple was going from table to table, talking to the people who'd gathered to celebrate with them. Up near where the altar had been was their table, as well as the ones for the rest of the wedding party, and the tables closest to them were filled with family, then close friends, and then down to people that had been invited but they weren't particularly close with. Once they'd gotten past the table with the entirety of his completely serious family and the couple with her more friendly one, they found themselves at the first of two tables where their friends were sitting, half of the seats empty due to people having chosen food over socialization.

"It was a beautiful ceremony, I was sure to use my photography settings to get as many decent pictures as I could," Kiibo informed them, tapping a metal finger to the side of his head. "Whenever we saw something of note, Himiko would make sure I documented it."

"We made a great team," Himiko added, her voice cheerful-sounding even with how dragged-out her words were. "And we did it without anyone else interrupting us. Thanks for not forcing us to be up front with you both, it worked better this way."

"That's good to hear!" Kaede said, smiling at them both. "I really would've liked if you'd been there with me instead of Miu, but I totally get it!" She then glanced to the person sitting at Kiibo's other side, who was sipping from a cup she must have grabbed right when they'd been put out. "Same with you, Kirumi! It would've been a lot better if you could've been one of my bridesmaids, but I fully understand why you chose not to!"

Taking another sip of whatever was in her cup, Kirumi set it down once she'd finished and gave a small nod as she swallowed. "It isn't every day that I get to partake in something without some sense of needing to be helpful, I appreciate that you gave me the chance to sit back and relax."

"And that's why I get why you turned me down, and honestly I don't blame you one bit! It must be such hard work, being such a great maid that you barely have time for yourself." Kaede laughed, but stopped suddenly when she felt a large hand grasp her shoulder, the person's other hand grabbing Shuichi the same way and pulling them in closer together.

"Gonta so happy for you both! It was hard not to cry, but gentlemen don't cry and Gonta is doing his best to be a gentleman today!" His hands still holding them together, Gonta brought his arms in to give them both a hug, before he sat down at the table next to the one occupied by the three friends. "Everyone else was crying, even the people up with you both."

"Yeah, better be glad that you couldn't see Kaito's sniffles going on up there, he looked like he was breaking all the stupid rules he insists a man has to follow," Kokichi said in his naturally obnoxious voice, as he sat two plates down on the table Gonta had sat at. "I'm sorry, but why would you choose _him_ as best man, when there's clearly better men in your life? Example A," he pointed at himself, "and example B," he switched to pointing to Gonta, "and I'd even say that Kii-boy over there's an example C."

While Kiibo shot back that that statement was inappropriate, Shuichi turned around to look at the table where Kaito was sitting, looking lively in the middle of the conversation he was having with the groomsmen. "I wouldn't have chosen anyone but Kaito to be there for me, even if he did maybe cry," he decided, looking back at where Kokichi was feigning a yawn as he ignored Kiibo's argument. "And if I had chosen anyone else, it wouldn't have been you, you'd have messed everything up."

Kokichi scoffed, looking offended at the statement. "Of course I'd have messed everything up, I like that sort of thing! 'Where's the wedding now, Kokichi?' 'Why is everyone not at the park like you said they would be?' 'Did you forget to tell us it actually changed?' Can you imagine how much fun I would've had having all that power? All the lies I could've told, and you ruined them for me!"

"Oh, I've been praying to Atua that you wouldn't do this when you got to see the bride and groom, and you're going against His wishes." Popping up on the other side of the tables with her hands firmly pressed together, Angie gave a prayer before she slid into the seat next to Himiko, although she was leaning backwards over the chair and looking at the two guys at the other table. "He says he is quite displeased with you, Kokichi. Is this how you want to be behaving in Atua's eyes?"

"Let's get away from here before this gets any weirder," Kaede whispered to Shuichi, and as much as he agreed with her, he could tell that the following tables were only going to get further into messy conversations, given that they were approaching some of his fellow detectives, as well as some musicians she knew. Her plan was put on hold anyway, as the moment they decided to try stepping aside to get to the next table, someone grabbed the train of her dress, and she couldn't move without fear of ripping it.

"Whoever sewed this for you did an excellent job at making it hold up, a skill most costume-makers need to learn when they make long gowns," Tsumugi remarked, running her hand over the stitches in the train. "I can only dream of the day where I need something quite this fancy, but several of my cosplays include—"

"You can shut up whenever you'd like, they don't care." In the middle of ignoring the second person of the moment chewing him out, Kokichi certainly had enough time to jump into Tsumugi's rambling to put a stop to it. "None of us care, really. Costume this, dress-up that, it's all stupid to all of us, so why bother trying?"

"—I'll have you know that people do care about this, they actually do!" Now Tsumugi was focusing on telling Kokichi off, even though her hands were still firmly on Kaede's dress, which meant that until something changed, the couple was effectively trapped there with their friends.

The change came with someone else sliding into the picture, taking the chair directly behind Angie's as his own. "Why are we spending all this energy arguing over here?" Kiyo asked, using his straight man voice to get the cacophony of voices to all fall silent. "Certainly there are better things we could be doing in the presence of a newly-married couple. Congratulations, by the way, it was most certainly a beautiful ceremony. Sister would have been most happy with being here, had she been able to attend."

"And we're really going now, we've spent way too much time over here, bye now!" Just the mention of Kiyo's sister put the drive into Kaede's heart to get them out of their current predicament, and she was thankfully able to wrestle her dress out of Tsumugi's grasp without any damage befalling it. They moved right along to the next table, and continued with their conversations as needed until they made it to the last table, where the little flower girls were all gathered. They seemed to be most excited to get to pose with the bride, and it was while the girls' parents were taking various photos that it hit the couple that they hadn't taken any pictures with the professional photographers aside from the ones before the ceremony.

That led them back up to the front, skirting past the tables filled with people now enjoying their meal, where the rest of the wedding party was waiting for them. "We didn't want to interrupt you talking to everyone, so we made our own fun while we waited," Rantaro said to them once they were within earshot. He was fiddling with his ear, bare of all jewelry for the first time in a long while, and it was obvious that he was waiting to get to put everything back into it. "Last I heard, they were setting a little something up outside for all of us."

"Outside? But it's still raining, isn't it?" Shuichi hadn't actually thought much about the current weather since he'd gotten inside the building in the first place, but now that the idea of going outside had been presented, the thought was crossing his mind. "Didn't you ladies ruin your shoes outside earlier?"

Miu and Tenko looked at each other and chuckled, while Maki shot Kaito a daggered glare. "You weren't supposed to mention anything about the shoes to him, you know," she spat, her words quite venomous. "Of all the people in the world, telling a detective something he can use to solve a mystery is the dumbest thing you can do."

"I didn't know you weren't telling me the truth!" Kaito stood up from his chair and threw his hands into the air once he was standing. "Here I was, thinking that maybe plans had changed and you ladies really were out there gettin' muddy at the park and that's why I had to bring the shoes, I didn't know it was something different!"

"If it's any consolation, I didn't suspect that he wasn't telling me the truth." Hoping that his honesty would calm things down, Shuichi chose not to ask about why they'd really brought the shoes with them if not to replace dirty ones. He was sure that he'd get his answer soon enough anyway, especially if they were expected to go outside. "Now what are they doing that has them setting something up out in the rain?"

No one seemed to want to say a thing, even though the looks across all the faces there (even Kaede's) showed that they knew something that he didn't. "It'd be best if you saw it for yourself, if they managed to make it work," Ryoma said, running a hand over his hair after attempting to pull down the front of a hat he wasn't wearing. "They're probably tired of waiting on all of us anyway."

It was easy for them to all get outside together, using the back route through the building that Kaito had taken Shuichi through earlier in the day, and once they were standing at the glass doors they were able to see what the photographers had set up in front of the building. Erected in the rainy daylight was a large canopy, and forming walls on two of its sides were nothing but lush flowering plants, all of which were blossoming with pink and purple blooms. "They couldn't give us the park, so they brought the park here to us," Kaede said quietly, squeezing Shuichi's hand in her own. "It's beautiful, don't you think?"

"Second-most beautiful thing I've seen today," he replied, earning calls of _nice move, sidekick!_ and _don't get her too horny, Saihara!_ from the people behind him, but it wasn't like he was listening to either of them right then. He was focused on Kaede, and how happy she seemed to be to get at least part of her dream wedding location after all.

Getting from the lobby area out to the tent was a bit difficult, given that it was still raining and nobody wanted to allow for themselves to get their clothes or hair messed up by any raindrops. This was where the umbrella that Kaito had found in the closet came in handy, even if it was barely enough for one person to stand under; as soon as one person made it out to the tent, the photographers came with their own umbrellas to assist in transporting everyone through the rain. The last two to make the journey were the newlyweds themselves, Kaede's dress requiring a lot of assistance to make sure it didn't get wet by the puddles on the ground, and Shuichi not wanting to leave her side in that moment.

Once all eight of them were safe and dry in the tent, it felt like they were in a completely different place than the outer courtyard of some music venue. The flower walls were beautiful and lively, there was a turf-like rug on the ground under their feet to give the illusion of grass, and the photographers had supplied their own props, such as garden benches and tables. While the wedding itself might have been an indoor affair, there was no reason to not give the illusion that it could have been something completely different, and the group had a lot of fun posing among the props and the flowers to get a wide variety of pictures. At times, members of the crew would go inside and retrieve others to join the picture-taking, which added even more layers of fun to the whole thing.

First it was some of their other friends being brought out to join them, culminating in a large group photo of their entire class, with the married couple front and center. Then, while some of the members of the wedding party were having intimate shots with other friends, those who weren't going to be in more pictures were helped back inside, in exchange for the first members of their families being brought outside. The pictures with Kaede's entire family in them were a lot more hectic than any of the others, especially compared to the ones with Shuichi's family, but when it came down to just the two of them and the most important parts of their families, it was one of the sweetest pictures they'd take all day. To Shuichi, having his parents around for the first time in forever, as well as his aunt and uncle that had raised him, in contrast with Kaede's parents and sister, who had always been there for her no matter what, meant the world to him and he knew he'd treasure those pictures they got to take together for as long as he could.

From there it turned into more intimate shots, this time with either bride or groom and whoever wanted to be with them most, and there were so many people who wanted their picture taken with either of them that it seemed to drag on forever. The pictures of Kaede and her sister took especially long, as they kept trying to adjust parts of the other to make them match as much as possible, without one of them crying at how their lives had gone in different directions so quickly. Once all of _that_ was finished, there was one thing left to do, and as the family members were escorted inside it became just Kaede, Shuichi, and the photographers standing out there underneath the sound of the rain hitting the top of the tent. That was when they got to do pictures of just each other, together however they wanted to be, and they spent just as much time posing as they did getting lost in the other's company, laughing at things they were doing and having a fantastic time being together.

All good things had to come to an end, though, and after they'd run out of ideas they were taken back inside, where the best man and maid of honor were waiting for them right at the door. "The two of you need to eat," Maki chided, taking Kaede by the wrist and trying to pull her forward, while Kaito did the same to Shuichi. "It's been hours, the food's starting to get cold, and the last thing anyone wants to see is either of you faint because you haven't eaten a thing today."

"She's been slipping into babysitter mode the whole time you've been out there alone, it's been adorable," Kaito said, earning himself yet another icy glare. "What? You're cute when you're worrying about people like they're kids. These two are not kids, y'know, Maki Roll."

"Oh, trust me, I'm well-aware that they're not kids." Maki was picking up her pace as they went down that back corridor once more, eventually leading them out to their special table where two plates of food had already been set out for them. "Now seriously, just sit here and eat and don't let what's happening distract you too much."

That was concerning to hear, and only grew more concerning when they did start eating and the immediate reaction was for Kaito to start banging a glass to get everyone's attention. "You don't know how long I've been waiting to get to do this today," he told the crowd with a grin, before setting his sights on Shuichi in specific. "It's been hard resisting just breaking down and telling ya everything I've wanted to say about this whole wedding deal, but now's my chance and I'm gonna take it."

"And that would be why you wanted us eating," Shuichi muttered through his teeth, looking towards Maki as she gave a slow wave in his direction. "Thanks for that."

"So where do I even start on this one? Shuichi's been my sidekick since forever, or at least since I met him, which wasn't forever ago but some days it feels like it." From there Kaito's "speech" completely went off the rails, turning into a recollection of various shenanigans they'd gotten into when they were students, rather than anything that the people there would be interested in. But when he brought it back to something relevant, he brought it back _fast_: "Never for a minute did I think that my wimpy little sidekick would ever get a girlfriend, but when he met Kaede I think he was determined to make her his always and forever right then, and he made it work.

"I remember him being so nervous to ask her out on a lunch date that he wanted me to do it, but why was I gonna ask out some girl for someone else? Not like I wouldn't have minded going out with Kaede myself, but that would've been a huge slap to the face to Shuichi if it'd happened and I wasn't about that. So I got him to man up, ask her out, and that one date turned into like a million more and now they're married." Kaito laughed, gesturing towards the couple with big motions. "I'm the one responsible for getting them together, you can all thank me later. But seriously, congrats on the wedding, and even more congrats on the raging sex we all know you're having later tonight!"

He took his seat to the sound of applause from most people that were there, although neither of their families were exactly thrilled with that last bit, and by far the loudest person cheering was Miu, clapping so hard that she ended up popping open the zipper on the back of her dress. Kaito's speech was the only one that anyone gave, not because no one wanted to try topping it but rather because no one else felt they had anything that needed to be said. Once the applause ended, the DJ sitting up in the booth above where they were all gathered started playing light music, nothing worth dancing to but enough to give some background noise while people chattered and the couple finished eating.

The second their table was cleared, the song that was currently playing stopped and on came an instrumental song that made Kaede jump in her seat. "This was the first song I performed at a piano recital," she explained to the ladies at the table next to her, figuring that Shuichi already knew and that the men wouldn't care. "It really takes me back, but I wonder why it's playing right now…"

She happened to look out at the other tables as her father stood up, coming over to her with his hand outstretched. People began cheering as she accepted his offer, standing up and taking his hand, him leading her to the area of the floor that had been marked as a dancefloor and beginning to twirl her around like the princess she was dressed like. Watching Kaede and her father dancing made Shuichi feel like his eyes were beginning to water, and it was when he went to wipe the first tears from one eye that he realized that if they were out there dancing together, then it was his turn with her next. The nerves started to build in his chest, the panic rising in his mind that something was going to go wrong while he was out there with her, and that everyone would look down on him for being a horrible dancer, or for making her cry with his choice of song.

The thing was, he'd planned it out with her father long beforehand that they were going to do the specific songs they were doing; they'd recruited her sister to step in and play the music on the piano for them to make it feel as much like it was Kaede's own playing they were dancing to. Now, of course, with a DJ being involved that step wasn't necessary, but now Shuichi wasn't sure how well the song he'd picked would work. That fear was immediately diminished when the current music drifted off into silence and the dancing stopped, and for a moment everyone looked to see what was going on, before a blonde identical to the one out on the dancefloor began carefully hitting keys on the piano there on the upper level.

Kaito gave him some kind of words of encouragement as well as a pat on the back before he was on his way towards where Kaede was looking up to see who'd sat at the piano to start playing. Whatever those words were, they were lost the second they'd been said, and Shuichi was sure things were better that way, now that he was once again looking into Kaede's eyes as they came together, bodies pressed together for their first dance as a married couple. He was careful not to step on her dress and she made sure to miss his feet as they moved in unison, a much slower dance than the one she'd just shared with her father but important all the same.

Whereas her father had picked the first song she'd played at a recital, Shuichi had picked the first song Kaede had tried teaching him to play, making their somewhat awkward dancing feel fitting to the occasion. He'd been horrendous when he'd tried to follow her direction on a keyboard, and he was horrendous trying to dance with her out on the floor, but what matter was not the quality of what they were doing, but rather that they were doing it at all. They were lost in each other's company, to the point that even when the song finished and they were back to the music that had been playing since right after the speech, they were still in each other's arms out on the floor, in the middle of all of the other people who'd begun to dance to the music.

Staying together was the theme of the rest of the reception, as they rarely were ever out of sight of each other. The only time they were apart from then on was when Kaede went back to the dressing room to change into a shorter dress, so that she wasn't hindered by the long train of her wedding gown—and when she came back dressed similarly to the other ladies, except wearing one of the pairs of shoes Kaito had brought, Shuichi found himself even more distracted by how she looked than he had been before. She filled out that dress better than any of the others, and she looked so thrilled to have full use of her legs again that her skin was quite literally glowing as she came back to be at his side.

The reception went until close to dinnertime, with a lot of social interaction to go along with it. There was still the bouquet toss to be had, which Kaede had been looking forward to since the moment Maki had told her she _wasn't_ going to be touching that bouquet again that day, and when the time rolled around for all the unmarried ladies to gather for the toss she made it a point to have Maki dead center in the group. Of course, that placement didn't matter when there were competitive women around her, and when Tenko and Miu both ended up with a hand on it, having both dove for the flowers the second they got close to them, it was a lost cause of trying to make something happen for her friend. The two ladies fought a bit over who got to claim the bouquet as her own, but Miu came out on top with the reasoning that she had busted her zipper again to get the flowers and she wasn't going to be leaving without them. Then she immediately tried to push them back into Tenko's hands once she was told that traditionally catching the bouquet meant that she'd be next of everyone to be married, but by then Tenko didn't want them either for that same reason.

That signaled the beginning of the end of the reception, as people began saying their goodbyes and giving their congratulations one last time before heading out for the rest of their night. Slowly the group dwindled down to half its size, at which point people started working to take apart the decorations and resetting the place back to resemble its empty state somewhat, but the real cleaning didn't start until it was just the families and closest friends sticking around. People who'd brought other clothes were changing into things less likely to get destroyed by moving tables and chairs out of the room, and those who hadn't brought anything were hanging to the side, watching the progress be made without them.

"You don't need to worry about anything, either of you," Ryoma said to the newlyweds after he came back out of his little suit and wearing something much less formal. "We were talking about it back in the room, we'll make sure it's all taken care of for you."

"That's really nice, thank you!" Kaede replied, beaming at the kindness, before her eyes widened suddenly and she turned to look towards the table that had been set up at some point, which was covered in presents that they hadn't even thought about. "What about the gifts, shouldn't we take care of those?"

"Eh, Kaito said that he's got the key to your place to get the piano back in it, so they'll bring the presents and all that over when that happens." Shrugging, Ryoma took a few steps backwards before turning to join the clean-up efforts. "Sorry to leave you both hanging, but there's work to be done around here. The others should still be up by the changing rooms, say your goodbyes and get on out of here."

They both nodded, but it was only after finding different family members and letting them know that they were heading out that they were able to start towards the glass doors at the entrance, finding most of the wedding party up there waiting. "I'm guessing you saw Ryoma down there, huh?" Rantaro asked, and when they said they had he quickly gave them both hugs and handed Kaede the very umbrella that had come from her own closet before taking steps down to where everyone was working. "Figured about as much, the two of you have a good time together and I'll see you around sometime."

"Between the two of them wanting to get things cleaned up, and Miu forgetting to bring something to change into _to_ help clean, I'm surprised that something else weird hasn't happened," Maki said, glancing towards the door where Tenko was standing guard, her eyes narrowed across at Kaito, who didn't seem to be paying attention to what was going on over in her direction. "Guess we'll see what goes on once you're gone, but seriously, there's no reason for you two to still be here at this point."

"No one ever told us we had to leave before this," Shuichi explained, while Kaede turned to talk to Tenko to try and pass goodbye messages through the door to Miu. "Besides, it's not like we're doing anything tonight except going home and sleeping, the first stop on our, uh, honeymoon is tomorrow."

"Are you really going to be sleeping, though?" Kaito's question seemed honest enough, but the way he couldn't help but smile when Shuichi looked at him showed that he wasn't being as wholesome as he sounded. "C'mon man, we know you better than that, you're going to get her home and that dress she's wearin' is going to end up on the floor."

"I, er, would rather not talk about that, thanks."

"Have some decency, will you, Kaito? There's no need to grill him on what we know is going to happen." Now Maki was getting onto that topic, and if she was going to condone the behavior then it really was time to get going. "Let them live their lives, we'll know what they did sooner or later, I'm sure."

Rejoining the conversation now that she'd finished with Tenko and Miu, Kaede had no idea what had been being talked about and she looked confused to see Shuichi getting flustered, with Kaito and Maki both looking like they were having a good time. "What did I miss while I was talking to my bridesmaids?" she asked, getting no answer aside from averted eyes. "Okay, whatever, I'm sure it wasn't that important. Are we ready to head out, Shuichi?"

He couldn't look at her, let alone either of his friends, but he could pull at his collar, the level to which he'd been flustered high enough to have him getting a bit warm. "Y-yeah, I'd say we're ready…sweetheart."

"Ooh, a pet name, you know that they're going to—" The conclusion to Kaito's statement was silenced by everyone looking at him at once, him getting the message that he didn't need to go there loud and clear. That group didn't hug, knowing that they'd see each other once the honeymoon was over and life was starting to get back to normal, but the last faces they saw before they went out towards those fancy cars sitting out front were the pair standing there at the doors, trying their hardest to stay mature even though they knew what was going to be happening very soon in the future.

Standing under the umbrella close together, able to stay out of the rain as long as they were basically on top of each other, the pair made their way to the front car, which Shuichi had assumed was the one Maki had used to drive Kaede over, much like he'd ridden in the other with Kaito at the wheel. As he found out, that wasn't quite the case, and he was glad it wasn't once he knew the truth. "We couldn't fit all of the dress stuff in here without needing to fold it up and let it get wrinkled, so I got to drive this bad boy over, and Maki got over here with Miu in her car, since she's got one so big to drive her machines around and stuff like that." Kaede shook the keys that were in her hand that wasn't helping hold the umbrella, keys that he hadn't noticed her holding before. "I got them from Tenko while I was talking to her inside, she got them from Miu, they were in the room, you know how it all works."

"I sure do know, are you driving or am I?" It was in that moment that Shuichi realized he'd never grabbed any sort of identification that morning when he'd left the house, so he had to quickly take back his question, stammering, "I-I mean, I can't actually drive, so if it's not too much trouble, could you?"

"Just help me get in, I'll get these shoes off and we'll be set!" True to Kaede's word, even though her feet were aching from the two different pairs of heeled shoes she'd been wearing, she was able to drive with ease, speeding through the empty streets through the rain and clearly enjoying the thrill of it. As she drove, she talked excitedly about how driving that car in particular felt like playing an especially good piano, how it made her wish that she had something that nice in her daily life but it felt great to have every once in a while. He was listening to her, but his mind had began drifting into uncharted territory that had definitely not been unlocked by their friends being a bit dirty-minded.

It wasn't even that late in the day when they were back inside their house together, no longer needing to go out into the rainstorm that had stuck around all day. It may have been raining outside, but it didn't manage to dampen their special day even slightly, despite the changes and alterations they had to make along the way; the rain was going to be one of those aspects to the day that would be noted in the story of their wedding they'd be telling their future children years and years down the road.

In fact, they were staring at the beginning of that road once they locked their door behind them, the first article of clothing to hit the floor _not_ being the dress as Kaito had guessed but rather something underneath it. They barely made it to the bedroom before all clothes were gone, the parts of the rented tuxedo left scattered among the dropped pins from Kaede's hair, her wanting to let it hang loose over her as they fell into their bed together, ready to do as all newlyweds seemed to do and make their marriage physically official.

The _I love you_s and the breathy moans of each other's name played in perfect harmony with the rain tapping against the window.

* * *

**A/N: title comes from a Debussy piece of the same name. because...duh.**

**This was inspired by some saimatsu fanart that got posted to reddit (as in, I saw fanart, I decided I wanted to write these two getting married all nice and pretty). no I did not mean for it to be this long. yes I hope everyone enjoyed it, even where I went fanon-y and had a good, completely stripped from canon time with things.**


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